East gives Pesci first victory, 23-7

South Lyon East’s football team returned home Friday night a bunch of happy campers following a 23-7 KLAA crossover victory at Wayne Memorial.

The Cougars, who snapped an 17-game losing dating back to Oct. 18, 2013 when they beat Wayne 27-8, broke open a close game with 16 unanswered points in the second half, including 14 in the final quarter.

“We probably had our best practice week of the season,” said East first-year coach Joe Pesci, who earned his first victory. “And our mindset every day was just talking about winning on Friday and that’s a game we were going to win. And our kids came out and took the play to Wayne I’d say for a majority of the game. We excecuted pretty well. We wanted to run the ball and were able to do that rushing for over 150 yards.”

After scoreless opening quarter, East got a 13-yard touchdown run by Anthony Salters, while Wayne’s Bryan Struppa countered with an 80-yard TD run to make it 7-all at halftime.

The Cougars (1-7) then took the lead for keeps getting a two-point safety in the third quarter when Wayne, backed up in its own end, snapped the ball over the punter’s head and out of the end zone.

East then put the game out of reach with a pair of fourth-quarter TDs, including a 30-yard scoring pass from Josh Smith to Garrett Read followed by Shane Patterson’s 2-yard scoring run.

The Cougars had a total of 197 yards, including 168 on the ground as Salters (13-for-83) and J.D. Simon (15-for-64) paced the rushing attack. Smith was also 3-of-7 passing for 22 yards.

Wayne (0-8) lost two fumbles and were intercepted twice, one each by Salters and Danny Kreitzer. Patterson was also a stalwart defensively.

“Defensively we did a great job of shutting down their athletes and their running game and were able to generate a couple of turnovers,” said Pesci, a former Farmington Hills Harrison assistant and quarterback. “That was huge for us as well.”